Saturday, January 28, 2006

Brain...overloaded

So much! After Abu Simbel we flew back to Cairo. After a lecture with Prof Mark Lerner we were hauling ass across the Giza plateau in jeeps to some of his excavation of the village of the workers. The day was grey and high winds threatened to blow us off a high bluff that overlooks the pyramids.

Next day and we get another lecture with Zahi Hawass, who is one busy little bee. He has been finding tombs all over the place. He announced that the team working in the valley of the Kings have found a tomb and this could be big news. The SCA has not made any announcement so I will keep my pie hole shut lest I get someone in trouble. Archeology here is still rife with politics.

We got into the Egyptian museum after hours (there were 5000 people there during the day). What we saw there was nothing short of incredible. It is said that if you were to casually glance every item on display in would take you a week. After touring so many empty tombs and temples it was amazing the see the quantity and diversity of the items discovered over the years.

Of course, with great joy comes sacrifice. Rossana is hobbling along in pain and I have caught a nasty cold from a fellow traveler. My last dream was to shop the souk called the Khan el Khallili. It has been written about in countless books. It is indeed a place of great wonders. Vast in size and unmappable. Every conceivable craft in practiced and sold here. Marshalling the strength to make the journey was hard. I almost didn't go. That should tell you how sick I am.

Too tired to go on. We fly home tomorrow. We will likely need a few days to recover our health. After that I hope to post pictures that I hope can convey some small part of the wonders we have seen.